Sunday, October 28, 2012

Gmod 13: how to fix broken model addons

Gmod 13 is no longer in beta. It's slick...has workshop support at the click of a button, and lots of shiny cool stuff. Updates are fun! However...

Of course, EVERYTHING OLD BROKE.

After some research and much stalking on the FP forums(which I will not link due to some of the content of that site being...well, let's just say not so good for most eyes.), I've found a few fixes so far that let one salvage stuff made for 10.

In order to help people not have to do so much digging and questioning, I'm listing the major thing here that let most of my stuff work again.
 
NOTE: This is going to take a bit of work with files on your end. If you are not comfortable with mucking about in files, it's probably best that you stick with what others are converting on the steam workshop and just put up with the fact all your old NPCs, models, and props don't exist.

Friday, October 12, 2012

No title, oh no.

Modeling...UV mapping...modeling some more.  That's pretty much my work day for today.  UV mapping is a chore.

Thankfully not everything in the game actually needs one.  Thank you Unity for supporting material settings.

In other news...Good old Games is having a weekend sale on various Ubisoft things.  One of these things happens to be Might and Magic 1 to 6, M&M 7, and M&M 8.  I now own all of them.  My party member dungeon crawling turn based combat itch should be satisfied for quite a while now.

Other things of note on sale: Hero's of Might and Magic 2 and 3, Beyond Good and Evil (No DRM version, YAY!), Prince of Persia Sands of Time Trilogy, and Assassin's Creed.  All fantastic games at this price if you enjoy their gameplay styles.  (I already own all of them on disk or various consoles though, but that shouldn't stop you from checking them out if you've never played them.)

Here's the website for lazy people(seriously, it's three letters long):

www.gog.com


I probably should have written something more useful here instead, but I've had a long day and don't feel up to a review right now.  So just go check out the sale instead.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Why Bad Piggies is Good - Android Review

This game is from the makers of Angry Birds, but aside from starring the pigs from it the gameplay has very little to do with Angry Birds.  Which is a very good thing, because I for one didn't like Angry Birds much.

I love Bad Piggies though.  I just felt that should be stated, so if this review sounds one sided, that's probably why.  I'll try to keep it fair anyways.  In short summary though, I heartily recommend this game for just about everyone.  It's hard not to be entertained by the cartoon outcome of the game, and building the many contraptions, then seeing them in action brings about a simple joy that should not be missed.

Monday, October 1, 2012

Game Project Progress


Finished sorting out all the current project modeling work and files into a modeling to do list and a modeling done list.

Next up, actually starting to add new content to the to-do list.  The result should be a massive, but highly useful page of all models, their current status(modeled, textured, rigged, animated), and a second list with all the complete ones.

All on a wiki page with html tables.  Who knew that html web design I studied back in my highschool years would end up being used to organize collaborative modeling on a video game?  I sure didn't see this one coming.

Friday, September 28, 2012

Custom Windows In The Unity Editor

People who don't use Unity are not going to get much out of this post.  If you don't find coding interesting, feel free to ignore this one.

The Unity documentation isn't very clear on how to setup scripts to add features to itself.  I found it rather confusing.  This is mostly because the biggest step, where to put the script file to make it work, isn't explained very well.  I aim to help some of you out with this post, having got it working this afternoon.

When setup right, having the Editor scripts folder and hooking code into the Unity Editor interface is very powerful.  Such a setup allows one to write custom tools.  In short, everything in the Unity graphical user interface(GUI) that you use to make your game project is written in Unity.

A quick disclaimer:  I am no expert on Unity.  I've got less then a year's experience using the tool, so don't take my words as law.  If you found this page in a google search, I'm probably about as experienced as you.

Anyway, enough rambling.  On with the useful info (after the break):

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Dream Drop Distance: First Impressions


Note: This isn't very helpful at all from a review standpoint, and is meant to be more funny then informative.  It's also spoiler free aside from talking about some basic gameplay mechanics.  It also contains ramblings on pets.  You have been warned.


Dream Drop Distance...

The intro is shiny.  It also tries to sum up the entire history of the games in about 4-5 minutes.  That works about as well as expected, as in, not really at all.  But it looks really amazing, and is a nice tribute to the series 10th birthday.

Apparently this game is about dropping asleep every few minutes and having to play as someone else.  It is...sometimes rather irritating, such as running out of time just when you found that pesky hidden chest.  On the other hand, the mechanic does do it's job of forcing you to play both Sora and Riku instead of playing one all the way through and ignoring the other one.  And it's also kind of funny, because when you are awake you can fly all around the room fighting things, and then once one more second passes and you run out of time, you collapse on the floor asleep.

Actually, the Drop mechanic has been clearly well thought out and isn't as bad as it sounds on paper, there are a lot of minor things that make it very bearable.  You also can instantly choose to "Drop" at any time, so if you want to spend time as just one of the characters, it's just a minor matter of hitting Drop every time the other one starts being played.

About the only complaint I have so far is that for a portable game, there's no "suspend game" option, and while save points are plenty, it's kind of annoying having to walk back to one if you want to play in short bursts.


I'm sure there's supposed to be a plot somewhere in here cause the intro was pretty shiny and seemed to be introducing people who I've promptly forgot about once I got my first pet in the game.  I vaguely remember this game has something to do with Sora and whatever/whoever those other Kingdom Hearts people were.

Alas, I've spent all my playtime so far just leveling up my adorable pets.  I haven't even passed the first world.  Actually, scratch that, I haven't passed the first couple of save points in the first world.  Cause I'd rather watch my two pet assistants fight the badguys in their own amazingly adorable way then go through an obvious plot continuation door.

I'm sure the plot is good, but my cute little animals need more love and care.  Always more love and care.  And MORE POWER.  And MORE LOVE.  AND MORE CARE.  AND PRETTY BUT TRIVIAL COLOR PAINT JOBS!  AND I CAN MAKE MORE OF THE PETS BY SPENDING LOOT DROPPED BY ENEMIES, SO I'LL NEVER RUN OUT OF PETS TO TAKE CARE OF!  Did I mention they are ADORABLE BEYOND ALL REASON?!?

I'm really starting to question if mixing Kingdom Hearts and what amounts to a super adorable KH team designed version of a Pokemon Pet Game was really the best idea.  Mostly because the Pet Game is too amazing, and distracting.  AND OH MY I DON'T EVEN CARE SO LONG AS THEY KEEP MAKING THOSE HAPPY CHIRPY NOISES.


BAD JOURNALISM OH NOS.

Monday, July 30, 2012

Neat article on playing skyrim...with a 4 year old?

I try to avoid these sorts of plug posts, but this article was just too good to pass up.


While most of the time I write for parents who don't know much about games and have kids who do, it's always really encouraging to read about parents who not only game as well as their kids, but really share playing the games together, as both parent and friend.


Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Playgrounds - Food for thought

Followers of my blog, the following is not a review, but it does have something to do with games, even if at first it may not appear to have anything to do with them.  It's a conceptual idea that's been brewing over the last week in my mind, and I feel I need to get it out.  And maybe, just maybe, it will change the way you think about things as well.  Or it may just confuse you to pieces, seeing as it's mostly a raw dump of my thoughts over the last week.


As children, one of the basic things we learn from is our time on The Playground. As children, much more so then adults, we love to play pretend.

Not everyone has a physical playground in the grown up definition of the word.  For example, I played more often in my house then in any nearby park.  So in that sense, my house was my Childhood Playground.

If you really open your mind, anything can be a Playground.

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Steam Summer Sales

So, Steam is having a summer sale right now, and it's a scheme to eat all your money.

That being said, if you wanted something off steam, the Summer/Winter sales are the way to go.  Most of the time they discount stuff from 40%-80%.  It's amazing, but it's also a scheme to eat all your money and give you cool stuff.

www.steampowered.com For those without the link.

Jak and Daxter quick series review

Here's my quick summaries of Jak and Daxter, all 4 of them, after playing through them all. (No, I didn't play the racing game, shame on me I know.)

Jak and Daxter: Precursor Legacy - or as I call it, Jak and Daxter: Spyro Egg Collecting Edition

Classic loot collecting platformer. Has a few minor annoying minigames, and difficulty is random, but other then that it's brilliant and a must play on PS2. Lots of classic platforming moments and the moveset you have is both devious and amazingly useful at the same time. I do have one thing to say however, and that is the game doesn't ever tell you that while rolling you can "long jump" with X. (If it did, I must have somehow missed the tutorial trigger.) So just remember that or you'll get stuck about 3/4th of the way into the game when that jump method becomes required to access a new area.


Jak 2 - or as I call it, Jak and Daxter: The Maddening Controller Selling Edition

Really bad GTA segments with really random frustrating timers on everything. Like seriously, everything. Deliver someone to point A and B and C, have a timer. Fight off the enemies, with a timer. Race through rings, with a really short timer that is reset each ring. Did I mention that the hovercars have very little health and that you only have 4 hits(you have 8 health, but everything does 2 damage so I don't see the point really.) The platforming isn't too bad, and brings some welcome difficulty, but then you'll get to a boss and quickly find out that fighting long often badly designed boss fights with 4 health and random, super rare health drops from crates(they would rather drop ammo even when your ammo is full) does not equal fun. Story is good, but not worth the frustration of the gameplay. Oh, and the minigames are hard too, in case you thought they would provide some fresh air.

The big killer though is that checkpoints save your progress(you'll spawn at the checkpoint), but they don't reset your ammo. This means you'll be tossed back into the boss fight due to your autosave(which cannot be turned off), but have to spend the next few runs just grinding for ammo instead of trying the boss fight properly. This is partly because the bosses are designed so that they will often do some cheap hits on you and so you need full health to fight them and full ammo to end the fight quick enough.

It's hard to say it, but this is one PS2 game that I cannot recommend to anyone unless you've got the patience of a saint to put up with all the cheap hits or bad runs you'll have when doing the objectives required to see the story. Skip this one.


Jak 3 - or as I call it, Jak 2: What we were trying to do in the first place

A bit of Jak 2 lives on, the story is a direct sequal to 2, but the gameplay is much improved. Just about everything that causes 2 to be the "Maddening Controller Selling Edition" has been fixed. Minigames now require much lower scores to pass for storyline, health actually gets upgraded and dropped more often, the gunplay actually works even if you can't see the enemy on the camera, and so on. While I died plenty of times, the platforming is much more sane then 2 and a lot more fun to retry, instead of feeling like a chore. One other thing that makes this game much more bearable is that it has lots of checkpoints.

There are just a few minor segments that are pretty difficult, one in particular is near the beginning when you need to race on these dinos that you haven't really had much practice controlling yet(they have a tricky double jump mechanic that makes it tricky to figure out how to move fastest with them). The rest of the potentially frustrating races are reserved for egg sidequests, and not required at all for storyline progress.

Don't get me wrong. Jak 3 is still difficult, and you will probably die a lot. But thanks to the checkpoints and the segments being shorter, or in the case of longer segments, being easier, the game redeems itself from the problems that plagued the 2nd game.


Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier - or Jak and Daxter: Sky Pirates Freelancer Edition

First of all, this one suffers from clearly being a port of the PSP version. However, it's still pretty well worth the time to play it once you get over the fact that the graphics are a bit dull and the camera is a bit more "auto-controlled" along paths(probably to make the PSP version easier to play, but it feels a bit weird when on the PS2.

The game still lets you "overwrite" it's camera angles for the most part if you want to, but I did notice that when I did that sometimes it would still try to "rotate around the corner" with the new angle I gave it, which just confuses the player and made me fall into a pit more then if I just went with the normal angle. The normal angles are usually pretty good though, and this issue only plagues the platforming sections of the game.

Most of this game will be spent in the cockpit of a ship, flying around arcade/Freelancer style, doing dogfights or exploring the many small but pretty detailed(for a PSP port) "area map overworlds". Basically each game location has one of these overworlds to fly in, and the platforming section's "landing pad" to get to it's platforming level. The result is a strange but really fun mix of Freelancer/arcade flight fighting and more standard Jak shooting/platforming/puzzle solving.

The platforming puzzles come in the form of different powerups Jak gains throughout the storyline, and often the puzzle requires 1 or more of these special powers to be applied to the level to continue on. By the end of the game, there are a few mind splitting combinations of powers needed to take down enemies or mix powers together for puzzles. But it's never overly complicated and exists mostly to separate areas, provide a break from shooting combat, or hide secrets in the levels.

Every now and then, you'll have to be Dark Daxter. These segments are a little weird, as you wander around some very simple levels as a severely overpowered monster. The combat is easy, as the main mechanic of these segments is that you can save up energy from monsters and then become an invincible tornado(it reminds me mostly of Taz from Loony Tunes, and is hilarious). While in tornado mode you break through stuff, and there is a bit of puzzles from the fact you can pick up different enemies too. Even if you find these segments boring due to being overpowered, they are all rather short and simple, so running through them shouldn't take too long.

Even though this one is clearly a port from the PSP, I still recommend it. The Jak difficulty is still there, but once again the designers were pretty generous with checkpoints. As a matter of fact, there are several checkpoint mid-battle in the Freelancer ship bosses that remember the bosses health but restore your own if you died mid-battle. Little touches like this help ease the difficulty so that the player keeps trying instead of giving up like Jak 2.


In summary, play Precursor Legacy, Jak 3, and if you want more Jak and love arcade spaceship shooting, Lost Frontier. Avoid 2, unless you're a really die hard fan who has the patience to put up with blatantly bad game design.

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Humble Bundle V is AWESOME.

Latest Humble Bundle V has launched.

http://www.humblebundle.com/

Oh look, it's a bundle with Psychonauts, Amnesia, and the over average payout game is Bastion. If you don't own them, you've really got no reason not to purchase this one. It reads like a hitlist of must play games. Only two weeks though, so decide for yourself quickly or it'll be gone.

I already own most of them, and here's a quick summary(really quick, I'm in a rush to do a lot of stuff today):

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Rant: Sonic 4: Episode 1

I'm hesitant to call this a review, mostly because I haven't finished the game in question.  Generally I like to finish games before posting reviews to give them a chance to redeem themselves with later gameplay.  But I feel this must be said now, especially since Episode 2 is out on steam and contains an incentive designed to sell copies of the first game.  I'll be quick here.

For clarity, I'm talking about Sonic 4 Episode 1 only.  The developers have said that many of these issues are addressed in Sonic 4: Episode 2.  I'm a bit short on funds to find out for myself, so everything in this ramble is only about Episode 1 and may not apply to the new chapters.

Sonic 4 is a decent platforming game that is decently good at everything except being a Sonic Game.  I had heard from others that the physics were a bit broken in this game, but this is much worse then I had imagined.


I know, you don't believe me.  Ok, let me explain in greater detail.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Portal 2: Steam Workshop Edition

Just a quick heads up for anyone who doesn't already know.

Portal 2 now has an official Level Editor, of the point and click together variety.  The trailer for it is pretty much self explanatory, so here's the store page directly so you can view it yourself in all it's glory.  By the way, it's a completely FREE update for those who already own Portal 2, and included in Portal 2 from now on for those new to the game:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/620/ (first video trailer is the official trailer from Cave Johnson himself.  It's also funny.)

The game is on sale for 66% off till 5/10/2012(midweek madness promotion), bringing it's price down to $6.79 USD.

Monday, April 23, 2012

Indie Spring Bundle and Review of Slydris

http://www.indieroyale.com/bundle/the-spring-bundle

The Spring Bundle is up but only for 2 more days as of this posting date and time.

This pack is actually quite good value for your money.  Mostly, I wanted to post about Slydris, as it's the only one I've had time to play but it already feels very worth the asking price for the bundle.  I can't vouch for the appropriateness of any of the other games in the pack as I've yet to play them myself and by the time I review them the bundle will more then likely be over.


Slydris, as you might have guessed from the name, is a tetris style block game.  It's tetris roots are obveous, solid rows of blocks clear themselves off the field, you make chains to get more points, if the blocks reach the top row you will lose, and between each move gravity takes over causing all the blocks to fall.  That's where the similarities stop however.  The block types are only horizontal bars, and you have no control over the new ones falling into the playfield.

Instead, you can grab and slide any block on the field horizontally.  After you slide a block and let go of it, gravity takes over and the blocks fall down.  The idea of course is to slide blocks to cause rows to be filled all the way across, and thus cleared.  It's a very simple mechanic and sounds boring on paper, but once you start playing you'll realize there is a great depth and even quite a bit of strategy to the game.

Friday, April 6, 2012

Microsoft Flight - Free to Play Flight Sim, now on Steam

Microsoft Flight Simulator has become simply Microsoft Flight, and is now a Free to Play game. Missions, collectibles, and exp.  It sounds like Pilotwings(SNES) all over again.  Even more perplexing, it's still mostly a Single Player Game despite having gone Internet free to play.

They recently released a Steam version of the game, so now you can try it out through Steam instead of downloading off the official site.  Benefits of that are you can use Steam's downloading service to grab the game(which is usually faster then the normal download speed).

It's probably going to be a while before I can review it proper, it being so big and all.  So I thought I'd share the news with you all now, instead of waiting to publish a full review later.  Please note that this info is based on my research into the game, as I haven't fully played it myself enough to properly speak as a player.

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Trine 2 Steam Sale

Quick shameless plug for one of my favorite games.  If you've got a couple of friends who can play local and want a good co-operative platform/adventure/puzzle game, don't pass this one up.  You will need a couple controllers, but I know Trine 1 is well worth the effort to play, and Trine 2 looks to be even better.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/35720/

Trine 2 is 50% off this weekend on Steam, bringing it's price down to 7.50 for the regular or only 12.50 for collectors.  The first Trine is 80% off, or a measly 2.00.  Both are well worth the full price and basically a steal at this price.

Both games are very good 3 player local puzzle/action/platformers, with an emphasis on creative use of physics and the character's different powers.  Both are also MAC compatible, for you MAC gamers out there.

I haven't had the time to write up a review of them on here yet, but the first Trine is good clean fun, and from the looks of it, the second one continues the tradition.  Good clean fun for 1-3 players at once.

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Dear Esther: A Review.

Ah, Dear Esther...

Not gonna lie, this game will either be two things to you. If you are not patient and not thrilled at the thought of taking a SLOW WALK through some scenery, while listening to pieces of a very broken someone's ramblings, with ample forced walking time between ramblings to think over what he is saying, this is NOT the "game" for you.  It will turn out to be one of the most boring things you've ever bought and you will quickly wish you had bought a few burgers instead.

It must be said, just to make things perfectly clear, there is NO INTERACTIVITY in the entire "game" besides using WASD to walk around(no run key), and mouse to aim where you are looking.  Clicking the mouse button simply zooms in a little bit on whatever you are looking at to examine it more closely.  No items, inventory, no puzzles to solve or people to talk to.  Not even zombies to run from or combat of any sort, not even a run button for those times you go the wrong way and need to walk back in silence(voices only trigger once per play).

There is a good reason for this, but I cannot explain it here lest I destroy what Dear Esther sets out and does so well.

Dear Esther is not a "game" in the traditional sense.  I think the best description of it would be "an activity that allows the player to explore and listen to a very broken man, while trying to make sense of what he is saying, with visuals that help support or add a physical backdrop to the audio."  In short, it's a jumbled audio book that you physically walk through at your own pace, that also relies on the scenery and sometimes which route you took through it to support telling it's story.

The fact you walk through it yourself and can choose to look deeper into things you come across helps distinguish it from what a movie can provide, while the otherwise stale lack of interactivity helps keep you from being distracted from the emotional roller coaster the story seeks to convey.  The fact most of the lines are randomized helps make each visit unique, while also revealing a bit more about the deeper meaning of Dear Esther as an entity.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Indie Royal Bundle

Normally I wouldn't recommend buying games when they are not even out yet, but for these 3, make a big exception.

http://www.indieroyale.com/

For 3 more days you can buy alpha access, and then when the games are finished you own all three! This pack is so worth it just for Towns(a majesty meets RPG dungeons) and Wyv & Keep (A two player co-op puzzle action platformer with from the looks of things, very devious puzzle design).

Current asking price is 5.08 as of this posting, but even for 10(the recommended bump the price down asking price) it's a steal.

I'll let their own page speak about what the games are and the three developers behind it on it's own.  They've said it so well I don't want to just repeat it here.  But do check it out this weekend if you've got a spare bit of gaming cash, as if even one of the games appeals to you this is very worth the cash.

The three games are also relatively clean fun.  There's some minor cartoon violence(sprite characters dying, minecraft style "deaths" of low quality 3d models in 3079), and both Towns and 3079 might be a bit over younger players because of their heavy emphasis on RPG stat management.  But it's hard to fault the games at this price.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Square Logic Rocks

If you want a good clean logic game, check out Everyday Genius: Square Logic.  It will test the logic part of your step by step puzzle solving without tossing complicated rules, math(the game will do all the maths for you, leaving you with the logic decisions), or chance based puzzles at you, and it will last you a long time.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Skyrim: Elder Scrolls 5

A lot of people have been playing this massive game called Skyrim: The Elder Scrolls V, myself included.  It's got so much content and story quests, it will honestly take me several years to get through it all.  Most of that time may be because I like playing a sneaky character.  Regardless of the reason, none of you want to wait several years to hear about it, so I'm posting a blind mini review based on my 20 hours of playtime so far.


Skyrim is an Open World Action Role Playing Game, in the most open, literal interpretation of the term.  Like Oblivion, and every Elder Scrolls game previously, Skyrim contains a massive world.  This world is populated by npcs who literally "live in the world", complete with daily/weekly activities they do, some legal, some not so much.

A quick note to parents.  This game is rated M, and I heartily support this rating.  By a "living world of NPCs", the designers literally made a world, everything good and bad included.  This world contains exactly everything questionable you'd expect in a fantasy setting world, from bars full of people who "look for the ladies" to very violent betrayals and brutal death "critical hits", and a strong case of racism.  In the world, there are very few NPCs who would stand up for "what is right", and many of the quests force the player character to choose the "lesser of two evils" with no good "Everyone can get along" ending.  Bethesda went for a very realistic world, only stopping from putting something in the world if it would threaten an A rating and prevent selling the game.

Skyrim's world is very much an adult world, and combined with the ability of the player to pretty much do whatever they wish to do in the world(for good, evil, or sometimes neither or both), this isn't a game for younger kids to play.  Honestly, a lot of the gameplay mechanics and storylines for the quests deal with adult topics anyway.  I would only buy or let an older kid play this if you are truly comfortable having them deal with such topics.

Having said that, the fact Skyrim has such a detailed world is one of the main reasons it has become so popular.  Very few games dive this far into detail, or put this much effort into literally dropping the player into the world and asking them "where do you want to go, and what will you do?".

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Don't support internet censorship

I usually do not post political things on this blog, but in this case I find I must make an exception.  After all, the reason this blog even exists is because I am allowed to freely speak positively or negatively about anything I want to, as an internet user in the USA.  Without that right, this website and the article you are reading right now doesn't exist.

I strongly suggest to everyone who is in the US to please take the time to follow this link and read up on the two acts that may change the way our internet allows free speech.  Research the bills (PIPA, and SOPA for reference, links given at the end of this article) yourself if you must, but know that time is ticking.

For everyone outside the USA, don't think this won't affect you too.  History has proven time and again that once one country decides such censorship is ok, the others tend to follow.  Contact any friends you may have in the USA.

https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/

Act fast, act now, and please tell congress to VOTE NO, because if PIPA and SOPA go through, our precious right to free speech and information sharing on the internet will be in jeopardy.  Not only will sites like Blogger.com, Facebook, and Google have to censor what we are allowed to see, read, or even talk about in the US, thousands of people who make a living off the basic concept of the internet being used for communication may lose their jobs as a result.

I'm all in support of anyone stopping the trade of illegal copies of games, software, music, and other digital media.  I am however, NOT in support of our government creating a massive ruling that puts a stop to it AT THE COST OF EVERYTHING THAT FREE SPEECH AND THE RIGHTS TO FREE TRADE ON THE INTERNET HAVE WORKED SO HARD TO BUILD.

This is going too far, for all of us, and for all the good it claims it will do, look carefully at the cost.  Ask yourself, is that "good" worth putting a full on stop to your right to start topics about anything the government deems it doesn't want you to talk or even know about?

Direct Links to the two bills in question, for your own research purposes:

PIPA(Protect IP Act)
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.uscongress/legislation.112s968

SOPA(Stop Online Piracy Act)
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.uscongress/legislation.112hr3261

Thanks for taking the time to read this, and take whatever actions you can to stop them from going through.  Make your voices heard people!

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Review: Bastion

Bastion is a hard game to summarize without spoiling what makes it so powerful.  In few words, it has a deeply thought out story, and tells it in a very unique way.  It's one of those few times when a game becomes much more then just another game, and ascends into an art form.

At it's core, the gameplay is that of an isometric action game.  You will find different weapons throughout the game, which you will use to fight your way through stages in a linear fashion.  Enemies and destroying stuff in the levels gives you money that you can use to upgrade your weapons, buy different tonics(which act as equippable accessories), and so on.  Nothing particularly special here.

Exploration is very limited to non-existent, though there are many parts where you as the player decide how "the kid" takes care of the situation at hand.  The different weapons all act and feel different enough to keep the gameplay flowing smooth, but this isn't a pure action game, as often times there will be a quiet segment where the enemies stop coming to make way for the storytelling.

Throughout the gameplay, an announcer(we find out who he is and who he is talking to later) tells the tale.  Once again, I don't want to spoil too much, but let's just say it's a clever use of 2nd person storytelling, both during the events and from future/past tense.

Monday, January 2, 2012

Minecraft Review

My internet is back, and thanks to the steam winter sales I have a backlog of games to play and review.  But first, a requested Minecraft review.

(Note, if you are familiar with minecraft's gameplay, skip to the Review header in bold down below.)

First, a basic, but long, explanation of what minecraft is.  It's so unique that my review simply will not make much sense if you don't know what the game is.